Mammography screenings obviously pointless

Breast Cancer: Mammography screenings do not save lives

02/25/2014

Mammography screenings are less effective than previously thought. Although many carcinomas are detected by the investigation, screening can not save lives. It also does not prevent cancer. On the other hand, those in charge of the mammography screening program are on the positive side.

Great expectations in the 1980s
The much-praised mammography screenings seem to be far less effective than previously thought, according to new research. Thus, scientists from the University of Toronto and the Swiss Medical Board come in two independent studies to a devastating judgment on the benefits of mammography screening. Breast radiography (mammography) was hailed as a major step forward in the fight against breast cancer, and as early as the 1980s, initial samples were expected to reduce breast cancer mortality by between 15 and 25 percent using mammography.

Mammography does not lower mortality
Researchers from the University of Toronto (Canada) have accompanied more than 90,000 women in a study for 25 years. The women were initially divided by lottery into two groups of 45,000 each. In one group, there were preliminary breast cancer studies using conventional chest palpation, and the other women also had an annual mammogram. Of those who were only sampled, 505 women died after 25 years. From the group of those who also had the annual mammography screening, 500 women had died. Like the scientists in the „British Medical Journal“ at breast cancer mortality was between mammographic controls and the scanning controls „no differences observed.“ However, the screenings were over-diagnosed by 22 percent. In these women, treatments such as radiation, chemotherapy or surgery were unnecessary.

Misconceptions lead to unnecessary treatments
This study is anything but positive for the breast cancer industry, as it indirectly questions regular screenings. Especially since a study from Switzerland has come to a similarly sobering result. The expert panel Swiss Medical Board published a report on the topic a few months ago „Systematic mammography screening“. For this report already collected data had been re-examined. „According to study data from the years 1963 to 1991, 1,000 women with regular screening die 1 to 2 women less in breast cancer than in 1,000 women without regular screening“, so the authors. And, like the Canadian study, the Swiss report concludes that there are too many overdiagnoses. This is how about 100 out of 1,000 women screen „to false findings leading to further clarification and sometimes unnecessary treatment.“ In addition, according to the report, a „very unfavorable cost-effectiveness ratio.“

Positive balance of the doctors
On the fringes of the cancer congress in Berlin a few days ago, those in charge drew a positive interim conclusion just over eight years after the start of the mammography screening program. Thus, in Germany, more and more breast tumors were discovered at a prognostically favorable early stage. In total, in 2010, when 2.7 million women followed the invitation to mammography, doctors discovered 17,501 breast cancers. However, a weak point of the program, for which all women living in Germany between the ages of 50 and 69 are invited to mammography every two years, is still the participation rate. In this country, only slightly more than half of the invited women (54 percent) take advantage of the preventive check-up offer. It has recently been reported that around one in two women is misinformed or insufficiently informed when it comes to screening or mammography screening. For example, the health monitor of Barmer GEK and the Bertelsmann Stiftung showed that 30 percent of women believed that even participation in mammography screening prevented them from developing breast cancer.

About 80 percent of women can be treated
According to figures from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), more than 70,000 women in Germany are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. About 17,000 women die every year. For this year, the RKI expect more than 75,000 new cases. About 80 percent of ill women today can be treated successfully, according to the German Society for Senology (DGS). Breast cancer is no longer synonymous with a death sentence. It depends a lot on an early diagnosis. (Sb)